Iranian nursing students’ comprehension and experiences regarding evaluation process: a thematic analysis study

Scand J Caring Sci; 2011; 25; 151–159
Iranian nursing students’ comprehension and experiences regarding evaluation process: a thematic analysis study In this study, a qualitative design based on a thematic analysis approach was employed to explore the comprehension and experiences of Iranian nursing students regarding evaluation process in both classroom and clinical setting. After utilising purposeful sampling to choose 13 bachelor’s degree nursing students, semi‐structured interviews were held for data gathering. During the data analysis, three main themes emerged: ‘definition of evaluation process’, ‘unfair evaluation’ and ‘ideal evaluation’. The second theme consisted of two sub‐themes: ‘problematic process’ and ‘unexpected outcome’. Our study findings showed a gap between what Iranian nursing students depicted as a fair and equitable evaluation and what they experienced during their academic career. There is a need to bring a change to process of evaluation to increase the feeling of fairness and justice regarding evaluation among nursing students. The findings can be helpful for international nurse instructors to be exposed to the unheard perspectives of nursing students and reconsider the weaknesses of evaluation process conducted by them.